Marital Satisfaction
“Ninety percent of American will choose to marry at some point in their lives… between one half and two thirds of all first marriages in the United States end in divorce”. These numbers mark the deterioration of marriages in Western society. As the numbers increase, people desperately try to find a solution to a lasting marriage. Many believe that a happy marriage is one of commitment and thus do not cheat. Others believe that opened relationships should be permitted as long as there is opened communication involved. However, both of these situations usually do not result in a happy marriage. The goal of this paper is not to look at evidence on how to make a marriage last. Rather, it ill focus on how to make a happy marriage last. This research will look at characteristics that increase marital satisfaction, and thus, increasing marriage longevity.
The Relationship Between Marital Characteristics, Marital Interaction Processes, and Marital Satisfaction
Objective
In the winter of 2004 Jane Rosen-Grandon, Jane Myers and John Hattie published their research on marital satisfaction in the Journal of Counseling & Development. Their article focused on one question: “What is the nature of the relationship between marital characteristics, marital interaction processes, and marital satisfaction?” They decided to research this topic for various reasons. Hattie, Myers and Rosen-Grandon wanted to know how to reduce the overwhelming number of divorce rates and thought that it might be done by knowing what makes couples happy. Moreover, they noticed in previous research that marital satisfaction induced happier and healthier lives.
Before conducting their own research, they turned to past observations and research on marital satisfaction. One particular influence who directed the goals of their research was Fenell (1993). Fenell asserted that the ten most important characteristics in a marriage are commitment, loyalty, moral, respect, sexual fidelity, a desire to be good parents, belief in God, need to please spouse, need to be a good companion and ability to forgive. Another crucial finding was made by Craddock (1991) when he asserted that marriage will last if people are flexible and adapt to change. Rosen-Grand, Myers and Hattie took upon many of other’s findings and conclusions as they conducted their own experiment to find what marital satisfaction entails.
Methodology
Participants
The participants of this project involved married couples that lived in a metropolitan area in the southeast. These people were recruited at a shopping mall and screened to assure that they are qualified for this experiment. The qualifications for participating included being in a first marriage, living with their spouse and being the only two in the relationship. In total 137 women and 64 men participated in the project. Seventy-seven percent of the participants were white and the rest were mostly African Americans. The average age was 39 and the average education level was college.
Questionnaire
Three basic instruments were used for the questionnaire given to the participants. The first one was Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). DAS was the primary method used as it measures consensus, affectional expression, cohesion and marital satisfaction. The second instruments used was Enriching and Nurturing Relationship Issues, Communication and Happiness Inventuory, or ENRICH. ENRICH, much like DAS, revolved around four independent variables in order to determine marital satisfaction. These variables included conflict avoidance, mutuality in decision making, sexual and psychological intimacy and communication. CHARISMA, or Characteristics of Marriage Inventory, was the third instrument used in assessing marital satisfaction. CHARISMA is a scale in while participants have to rate the important of each marital characteristic. CHARISMA was plugged in DAS and ENRICH by the participants and given to the conductors, which in turn plugged it into a specially made computer program used specifically for conducting this research. SPSS, the computer grogram used, provided the researchers valid information and appropriate statistics.
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